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Thursday, August 28, 2014

IT’S THURSDAY, DO YOU KNOW WHO YOUR READER IS?

Just came out of Sales
Conference, a full two days of talking about our books, our authors,
our PR/marketing plans, our cover designs and looking at lots of data

As I think about the
data, it reminds me of conversations I’ve had lately with authors, both
Sourcebooks' authors and many others I meet at conferences, along the
lines of “you are not your
reader.”

Now, it’s probably
obvious that authors are also voracious readers. But authors are not
necessarily the demographic of their readership.

So here’s a quiz, and
as I look at your posts and answers (feel free to pose questions too)
today, I’m going to share some of the data I have about who the romance
reader is, and what I know
about her (yes, she’s predominantly a “she”).

PLEASE ALSO POSE
QUESTIONS—I THINK THIS IS A REALLY USEFUL CONVERSATION FOR AUTHORS TO
HAVE, AND QUESTIONS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS ANSWERS SOMETIMES.

What great questions - I never knew it mattered for authors to know much about their readers besides what they like to read. I grew up, before the social media age obviously, finding my new authors just by roaming the aisles of the romance section reading back blurbs. I kinda admit that was more fun than just seeing things on Amazon. Maybe I like my hands on experience!

Madeline Hunter started an author yahoo loop to address that question (or more generally, how historical can recover lost ground), and it currently boasts 200 members. They're working on everything from excerpt booklets, to trailers, to college dorm outreach initiatives, to multiple reader surveys. The group includes the veteran trad list makers and the tryo indies and has a lot of energy and ideas. If you'd like to join, you can contact Madeline at: madeline@madelinehunter.com.

Now I'm very curious about the answers. I've always assumed the average age of a romance reader was between her early twenties to mid fifties. But I've never thought about pinning it down based on region. Interesting.